The Seven Deadly Sins

Fun online lecture from the National Gallery picking examples of pictures in their collection depicting each of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Caroline Smith and Carlo Corsato, educators at the gallery took it in turns to pick a picture which represented one of the sins and defined why what that sin meant. This was a fun way to look at a group of disparate pictures. Unfortunately, I missed the start of the talk which put the Seven Deadly Sins in their religious and literary context.

Some of the choices were fairly obvious such as “Two Tax-Gatherers” by the workshop of Marinus van Reymerswale from the 1540s to represent greed and a “Susannah and the Elders” by Guido Reni from 1600-5 for lust. However “The Good Samaritan” by Jacapo Bassano from 1562-3 felt an odd choice for sloth, but as they said it’s hard to find a picture of someone not doing something! In this case the two men who walked past didn’t help. I thought “Christ Driving the Traders from the Temple” by Bernado Cavallino from 1645-50 was an interesting choice for wrath and the idea that Christ had to show the range of human emotions before he died.

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